Demian

Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth is a Bildungsroman by Hermann Hesse, first published in 1919, but a prologue was added in 1960. Demian was first published under the pseudonym "Emil Sinclair", the name of the narrator of the story, but Hesse was later revealed to be the author. The name "Emil Sinclair" was chosen because he was a friend of the poet Novalis, whom Hesse adored. The novel was written in just three weeks.

Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. Throughout his life, Hermann Hesse was a seeker. This is reflected not only in his outstanding literary works, due to which in 1946 he won a Nobel Prize. In his home town of Calw, where he was born on July 2, 1877, he spent his youth in the bosom of his family - formative years that found their way into many of his books. Maulbronn, Tübingen and Basel were among the other places Hesse lived in. In 1904, he moved to an old farmhouse in Gaienhofen on Lake Constance to embark on a career as a freelance writer. In 1911, he made a journey to India, and moved to Switzerland a short time later, living first in Berne and later in Montagnola (Tessin), where he entered his most prolific period as a writer and died in 1962. The task of overcoming personal crises is one of the defining elements of Hesse's work, though other issues such as religion and politics are also featured prominently.